Nature Trail with Bruce

Today a guide from Ivy Creek came to school to teach us a few things about our own Nature Trail. Some of the new things we saw were:

• Toad
• Daddy Long Legs
• Ant hill
• White Oak Tree
• Acorns
• Sugar Maple Tree
• Dogwood Tree
• Sycamore Tree
• Vines
• Moss
• Mushrooms
• Decomposing logs
• Fungi
• Two year old White Oak Trees
• Red Hickory Tree
• Cicada Shell
• Birds
• Squirrels
• Woodpecker holes
• American Cedar

Some of the new things we learned:

• White Oak trees have shingle-like bark
• White Oaks have different shaped leaves, both with lobes
• You can write on Sycamore bark - it's like paper
• Oak trees grow wider and objects can grow into the bark (fences, bricks, etc.)
• Sycamore trees have three different leaves
• Hickory has compound leaves - 5, 7, or 9 leaflets make up one leaf
• If Daddy Long Leg loses a leg it wiggles around on its own
• If Daddy Long Legs (DLL) loses both of its antennae it dies because it can't hear, see, or smell
• DLL antennae are longer than legs
• Leaves need sun to grow, that's why many small trees in the woods never make it because they don't get enough sunlight
• Roots of White Oak go down as far as the tree goes up, and as wide as the braches are
• Dogwood Trees need lots of sun to grow berries (the Dogwoods in front of the school have many more berries than the Dogwoods in the forest... now we know!)

Questions we're still wondering about:

• Why do some of the trees have fungi growing on them?
• Why does the Holly Evergreen have shiny leaves?
• Why does the Holly Evergreen leaves lose their spikes when they fall off the tree?
• Why do trees need sunlight?
• How can the toad fit through holes that are so small?
• Why does the Maple have sugar in its leaves?